Set Up Work Rosters for Drivers

Work rosters help you manage your drivers' schedules and automatically classify their journeys for tax purposes. By setting up rosters that define when your drivers are working, Track My Ride can automatically label journeys that occur during rostered hours as business travel and journeys outside those hours as private travel. This automation simplifies tax logbook management and ensures accurate journey classification for tax reporting.

What Are Work Rosters?

Work rosters are schedules that define when your drivers or workers are on duty. Each roster specifies the days and times when a particular driver is working. Track My Ride uses these rosters to automatically determine whether journeys should be classified as business or private travel.

How Rosters Work with Journey Classification

When you create a roster for a driver and classify it as "business", any journeys that driver makes during the rostered hours are automatically marked as business travel. Journeys outside the rostered hours are marked as private travel. This automatic classification appears in your Journey reports and Tax Logbook reports, eliminating the need to manually classify each journey.

For example, if you set up a roster for a driver indicating they work Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00 and classify the roster as "business", all journeys that driver makes between those hours on those days will automatically be classified as business travel. Any journeys they make on weekends or outside business hours will be classified as private travel.

Creating a Work Roster

Follow these steps to create a new work roster for one of your drivers.

Step 1: Sign In to Your Account

Step 2: Navigate to the Drivers Page

Click on the Drivers section in the main navigation menu to access your list of drivers.

Step 3: Open the Work Roster Tab

At the top of the Drivers page, you'll see several tabs. Click on the "Work Roster" tab to access the roster management interface.

Step 4: Click the New Button

In the Work Roster area, click the green "+ New" button to begin creating a new roster.

Step 5: Fill Out the Roster Information

A popup window appears with fields for configuring your roster. Complete each field with the appropriate information.

Step 6: Save the Roster

After filling out all the roster information, click the "Save" button at the bottom of the popup window to create the roster.

Roster Configuration Fields

The roster creation popup contains several fields that define how the roster operates.

Name

Select the driver this roster applies to from the dropdown list. This field determines which driver's journeys will be automatically classified according to this roster.

Title

Enter a title for the roster that will display in the Track My Ride interface. This helps you identify the roster when viewing the roster calendar. For example, you might use titles like "Work hours", "Day shift", "Night shift", or "Weekend roster".

Description

Provide a description of the roster to add more context about what this roster represents. For example, you might enter "Auren's regular work hours" or "Summer season roster" or any other details that help explain the roster's purpose.

Classification

Choose whether journeys during this rostered period should be classified as "Business" or "Private". This classification will be applied to all journeys that occur during the roster's scheduled times and will appear in the Journey and Tax Logbook reports.

Select "Business" if the roster represents working hours where travel should count as business travel for tax purposes. Select "Private" if the roster represents times when travel should count as private travel.

Repeating

Choose whether this roster repeats on a regular schedule or represents a single one-off event.

Select "Weekly" if the roster repeats on the same days and times each week. Select the appropriate option for daily recurring rosters if available. For one-off events that don't repeat, choose the non-repeating option.

Days

If you've set the roster as repeating weekly, select which days of the week the roster applies. Check the boxes next to the days when this roster should be active:

Mon (Monday)
Tues (Tuesday)
Wed (Wednesday)
Thurs (Thursday)
Fri (Friday)
Sat (Saturday)
Sun (Sunday)

You can select any combination of days. For a standard Monday to Friday work schedule, check Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Fri.

Daily Time

If the roster repeats, set the daily start and end times. The first field represents when the roster starts each day, and the second field (after "to") represents when it ends each day.

For example, for a roster running from 09:00 to 17:00, enter "09:00" in the first field and "17:00" in the second field. These times apply to all selected days.

Period

Set the date range when this roster is active. The first date field is when the roster starts, and the second date field (after "to") is when the roster ends.

All times are displayed in the vehicle or driver's local timezone, so make sure you've set the correct timezone for your drivers and vehicles in their respective settings.

Roster Scheduling Example

Here's an example of how roster scheduling works in practice:

If you create a roster with the following settings:

Days: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday checked
Daily Time: 09:00 to 17:00
Period: 21/05/2023 to 10/06/2023

The roster will be active between 09:00 and 17:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday each week. The roster will start repeating from 21 May 2023, and after 10 June 2023, it will stop repeating. Any journeys the driver makes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Fridays between 09:00 and 17:00 during this date range will be automatically classified according to the roster's classification setting.

Viewing Rosters and Journey Classification

After creating rosters, you can see them displayed in the roster calendar view and see their impact on journey classification.

Roster Calendar View

The Work Roster tab displays a calendar showing all active rosters for your drivers. Each driver appears as a row, and their rostered periods appear as coloured bars on the calendar timeline. This visual representation helps you see at a glance when each driver is scheduled to work and identify any scheduling gaps or overlaps.

Journey Classification in Reports

When you run Journey reports or Tax Logbook reports, you'll see a "Classification" column that shows whether each journey was classified as "Business" or "Private". Journeys that occurred during rostered business hours automatically show "Business" classification. The notes column may also indicate "Journey occurred during the driver's rostered business hours" to explain why the classification was applied.

Editing or Deleting Rosters

You can modify or remove rosters after creating them if your scheduling needs change.

Editing an Existing Roster

To edit a roster, locate it in the Work Roster tab and click on it to open the roster details. Make your changes to any of the fields and click "Save" to apply the updates. Changes to rosters affect how future journeys are classified but don't retroactively change the classification of past journeys.

Deleting a Roster

If you no longer need a roster, you can delete it from the roster management interface. Deleting a roster stops it from classifying future journeys but doesn't change the classification that was already applied to past journeys based on that roster.

Multiple Rosters for One Driver

You can create multiple rosters for the same driver if they have varying schedules. For example, you might create:

One roster for regular weekday hours (Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00) classified as business
A separate roster for weekend shifts (Saturday and Sunday, 08:00 to 16:00) classified as business
Another roster for after-hours on-call periods classified as private

Track My Ride will apply whichever roster is active during each journey's time period. If multiple rosters overlap for the same time period, Track My Ride applies the classification from one of the active rosters.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between business and private classification?

Business classification indicates the journey occurred during working hours for business purposes. Private classification indicates personal travel outside working hours. This distinction is important for tax reporting, as only business travel may be eligible for tax deductions.

Can I change a roster after creating it?

Yes, you can edit rosters after creation. Changes affect how future journeys are classified but don't retroactively change the classification of journeys that already occurred.

What happens if I don't create any rosters?

Without rosters, journeys won't be automatically classified. You would need to manually classify each journey as business or private in your reports if you need that distinction for tax purposes.

What happens to journeys outside rostered hours?

Journeys outside rostered hours are typically classified as private travel. However, the specific classification depends on your roster setup and whether you have multiple rosters with different classifications.

Do rosters affect journey tracking or just classification?

Rosters only affect journey classification for reporting purposes. They don't change how journeys are tracked or recorded. All journeys are tracked regardless of whether they occur during rostered hours or not.

Can I see which roster classified a particular journey?

Journey reports may include notes indicating that a journey occurred during rostered business hours, but the specific roster that applied the classification may not be explicitly shown. The classification column will display "Business" or "Private" based on the active roster at that time.

Can I create rosters for drivers who use mobile tracking?

Yes, rosters work with both hardware tracked vehicles and mobile tracked vehicles. As long as the driver is assigned in the system, you can create rosters for them regardless of the tracking method.

How far in advance can I create rosters?

You can create rosters with future start dates as far in advance as needed. The roster will begin applying classifications when its period start date arrives.

What happens when a roster period ends?

When a roster's end date passes, it stops applying classifications to new journeys. You can create a new roster to continue automatic classification, or extend the existing roster's end date if your schedule continues.